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One has to laugh

I needed a few things at Boots today, so went into Yagnub on my own and pottered around. I’ve so got out of the habit of doing that, it doesn’t come naturally any more. But I had a £25 voucher and I stocked up on various odds and ends, bought some glasses in a charity shop, considered going to the dress shop but didn’t, and went home again. As I said yesterday, we’ve relaxed for the weekend and that’s that – though I’ve got a 3 hour drive tomorrow, so I do need to be on the ball for that.

For the last few years, I’ve been using the iPlayer radio app to listen to BBC radio, and it’s pretty good. I can mark programmes I want to listen to or download, and they come to the top of the list when there’s a new episode, so I can check through the list and see what I want to download. It’s not perfect – I’d like not to have to ferret through, to see things I might be interested in, and I’d like new episodes to download automatically. But it’s pretty good. A week or two ago, I was notified that there was a new app called BBC Sounds, so I downloaded it. It’s clearly aimed at younger people listening mostly to music, but that isn’t the problem. What is, is that every single thing I’ve bookmarked is listed in random order, with no indication of whether there’s anything new since I last listened, nor whether the programme can still be listened to – a lot of them vanish after a month. I keep the bookmarks – let’s say that there’s a programme which has a new series every year. I get the notification that the new one has started, as long as I haven’t removed the bookmark. But this new app is not in chronological order at all. Apparently, it will suggest new programmes based on what you’ve listened to before, which is just what I want. But I can’t do the massive amount of work involved in setting the whole thing up. It seems that they’re going to withdraw iPlayer, on the grounds that not enough young people listen through it, and they’re interested in the under 35 audience, and are willing to spend 10 million pounds promoting it. No idea if that’ll work, but it seems that they don’t care about losing me. Audiobooks, here I come.

I’m listening to Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley at present, in some haste as it only has a couple of days to go. I evidently haven’t read it, which surprises me, but I didn’t know the plot at all. It’s done very well and I’ll miss the BBC. But they have to get the app right before junking the old one, if they want to keep their old listeners as well as possibly gaining new ones. I don’t think they should worry about it, myself. Just be good and people will follow you.

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4 comments on “One has to laugh”

I use the iPlayer Radio app a lot too, and had exactly the same experience with Sounds. I didn’t however realise that they are going to withdraw iPlayer, which seems like a very big mistake given that sounds has a virtually unusable UI. Then again I suppose it’s not like the modern BBC to make a bad decision is it.

There was an article about it in yesterday’s Times. They’re promoting the new app frantically- Lord knows why they’re so keen, but it’s all about attracting younger people. And it says iPlayer is soon to be wound down. Sounds has awful reviews on the App Store – I’ve added my own, comparing it unfavourably to iTunes.

The Unobservant Eye of Z

Dramatis personae:
My husband, Lovely Tim or LT for short (though he is actually tall).
My late husband, the Sage, aka Russell.
My children: Dearest daughter Weeza, who has London Ways, is married to Phil. Their daughter is Zerlina Buttercup and their son is Augustus Bufo. Elder son - Al X, is married to Dilly. Their children are Squiffany Virgilia, Maximus Pugsley and Hadrian Swallow. Younger son - Ro married to Dora and their two-year-old is Rufus Russell.
Big Sister: Wink. She lives in Wiltshire, 230 miles away, but we're much closer than that.
We live with our cat Eloise, a black tortoiseshell half-Ragdoll.
Bantams live in the garden and cats live in the barns but we feed them and they have ambitions to be pets too. In addition, cows come to visit in the summer. Mostly, they stay in the fields. None of them has got a hoof in the door yet.
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Updating takes too much memory, sorry - but then I'm not very young any more, so am hanging on to the memory I've got. Please don't look for any significance in the order - I'm not drunk but I am disorderly.

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Oh, what's the problem? This is hardly Great Literature. I'd appreciate anything taken from here being acknowledged, and I might change my mind if I'm suddenly proclaimed as the Literary Queen of the Blogosphere - but I probably wouldn't. Do what you like, just as long as it doesn't extend to defamation of anyone, even me.

Actually, you want to pass off what I say as your own, I might even be flattered. Let's face it, who cares anyway?